Have you come to read this review because you were intrigued by the brilliant name? Go on, admit it, the title 'Super Dudester' was just too good to ignore wasn't it? That's the beauty of indie gaming, you can get some cracking game titles that just stand out as something special. But, does the game stand up to the great name?

Now thats a tough one. Stylistically, visually and audibly the game is a class act, putting you in the role of the Dude (who looks like Elvis) on a mission to escape a bad 'trip' - and we're not talking holidays here boys and girls! If games were reviewed solely on graphical and audio treats then Super Dudester is already a winner.

Any discerning gamer usually needs solid and lasting gameplay before they choose to part with cash so its with some relief that I can say that the gameplay in Super Dudester matches the presentation. The game involves you being trapped in Dr. Doooom's Bad Trip Machine, making your way from the start room to the exit room via a series of rooms.

The rooms you enter are basically short lived mini-games where the Dude needs to catch, shoot, avoid and sometimes memorise a wide and unusual range of items such as fruit, jellyfish, aliens, planets and more. Action is mouse-controlled with you moving the Dude around a single screen and shooting (where necessary) with the left mouse button.

You pick a room to enter at the map screen. Starting in the bottom left corner of a grid, you can move to adjoining rooms once a room is complete. On entering a room you are told an objective such as 'Collect 8 moons' which you must do quickly. Perform badly and a time penalty will ruin your high score chances.

In the 'Collect 8 moons' game you have to shoot down a planet which turns into a moon which you must collect. This isn't an easy task though as the moons are pulled towards other planets, making speedy recovery a necessity.

Sadly, Super Dudester lacks the depth required to make this a truly stand-out title. Their are plenty of plus points in its favour; 81 rooms (I think) for you to play in, a fairly wide range of game styles (albeit very similar styles), some strategy in chasing high scores, etc. However, most of the games, despite being fun for a brief time, can become a chore to play repeatedly.

Even though I have my reservations about the long-term appeal of this game, I really like Super Dudester. It has an arcade feel that has you returning to it for short bursts again and again. I imagine that a game just like this could have survived and done well in a Blackpool arcade 15 years ago but times have changed and only a play-through of the excellent demo will tell you if this is the sort of game that you'd now want to spend money on.

PuppyGames would like Bytten readers to know that Super Dudester is undergoing a few changes to the core gameplay at this time. For this reason, the main PuppyGames website no longer lists Super Dudester as a game that can be purchased. You can still download and play the demo, but the final, final product will have improvements made that just aren't visible at time of writing.